Rick Santorum

Presidential challenger Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of failing to lead in a time of economic peril but sounded less conservative than his Republican rivals in their debate Tuesday night, defending the 2008-2009 Wall Street bailout and declaring he could work with “good” Democrats.

They know they’re not crazy about Mitt Romney. But if the cultural conservatives gathered at a Values Voters Summit this weekend split among Rick Perry and other contenders they do like, it could wind up benefiting the front-running White House hopeful who troubles rather than excites them.

While most of the attention heading into this weekend’s Iowa straw poll is on Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty, lesser-known Republican presidential candidates are working equally as hard to pull off a surprise.

No single candidate stands ready to fill the gap that Mike Huckabee leaves in the 2012 Republican field for president, and those who do benefit may bear little resemblance to the former Arkansas governor and one-time Baptist minister who was favored by evangelical conservatives.

A conservative group that has brought a string of potential presidential candidates to Iowa to lecture about the need to reduce government spending owes some of its past success to generous federal grants, which it has since rejected amid charges of hypocrisy.

A run for the White House has long meant enduring icy days campaigning in Iowa for the contest that starts the presidential election calendar. But this winter fewer candidates have braved the Midwestern chill. And that has left some wondering if the Iowa Republican party’s shift to the right is scaring off some hopefuls and making the Iowa caucuses less competitive — and less important.